Podium: Messaging App for Businesses
I use Podium currently just to text customers, however, I'd like if we could use their phone service too (assuming you can call using your …
Starting at $249 per month
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What is Podium?
Podium, formerly Repdrive, is a ratings and review management platform from the company of the same name in Provo, Utah.
Recent Reviews
Pricing
Podium Essentials
$249
Cloud
per month 3 users
Podium Standard
$409
Cloud
per month Unlimited users
Podium Professional
$599
Cloud
per month Unlimited users
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.podium.com/pricing/
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting / Integration Services
Starting price (does not include set up fee)
- $249 per month
Product Details
- About
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is Podium?
Podium (formerly Repdrive) aims to help businesses make interaction with consumers simple and convenient by focusing on familiar communication channels they already use. According to the vendor, increased interaction with customers makes businesses more visible, improves business operations, and drives purchase decisions. Podium serves 130,000+ users across nearly 25,000 businesses.
Podium Competitors
Podium Technical Details
| Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
| Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
Podium, formerly Repdrive, is a ratings and review management platform from the company of the same name in Provo, Utah.
Podium starts at $249.
Reviewers rate Usability highest, with a score of 9.9.
The most common users of Podium are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
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(90)Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-25 of 41)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
September 28, 2022
Podium: Messaging App for Businesses
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I use Podium currently just to text customers, however, I'd like if we could use their phone service too (assuming you can call using your personal phone but under the podium #). I don't work on commission so I would prefer if customers weren't calling/texting my personal line after I clock out. With Podium, it's an app on my phone so I can still access text messages from customers at home if it is an emergency. I sell to customers who text in using our "chat system" on the website & it allows us to see what page the consumer was engaged on when they texted us. A lot of times we will get messages like "what is the price for this item?" & we can click the link shown in the chat to see what item they were looking at-it's really convenient! We have text lines for each of our locations, & although they all have a different phone #, on the business side we can see all messages from all locations at once & easily transfer them between locations since we do have two different types of stores with different merchandise, & a main location with the most inventory options in case someone texts into the incorrect location. You can see a leaderboard of all users & how many messages they have sent or how quickly they answered incoming messages which is super fun.
- Texting customers
- Reviews
- Customer support
- Quick access to incoming website inquiries & ability to reply just as fast
- Has loading problems sometimes
- Room for improvement: Be able to pin or star certain conversations to keep open for only the individual user who owns unless searched (max of 8 as not not clutter) to see to keep the open conversations among all users a bit clearer & separate pin/star function for the overall store for very important conversations (i.e. customer has a question that requires more experience-all users can see the question has been pinned for further investigation)
- Room for improvement: Be able to see who has seen a message on mobile platform
- Room for improvement: Some kind of indication/marker to all users on incoming, (first-time or webchat only) conversations that have not been answered within 45 mins- hour of operating hours
September 28, 2022
Great for review generation. Not so great with customer support.
Score 2 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I use it as a text messaging platform with our customers. It integrates with our POS system named the Edge and of course we are using it to build our Google reviews. Also, we have began using the campaign feauture and I am very disappointed with it. I know there is a problem with AT&T customers but we should have a lesser charge per month. I have 17k users and the last campaign reached about 1400. The worst of it is that it is always a challenge to get support. We should have a singular person who we can reach when there is an issue.
- Builds Google reviews
- Texting platform that makes communication with customers so much better.
- Payment system is quite easy to use and the card readers are easy to use
- Campaigns. Need explain to user better how to reach ALL of your contacts
- Need to have better customer support and ease of calling support. Text support is way to slow to respond. A texting service and I refuse to text support.
September 27, 2022
Terrible experience with Podium
I intended to use it to get reviews for my two e-commerce websites. I scheduled an appointment to get started. I asked a question about using it for both websites, and the person never got back to me. I asked the sales representative to help and got no help. In my experience, I received nothing from the service and still paid. In my experience, I have called four times asking for a refund and never got a response. I feel this is a terrible company.
- Sales person closes the deal
- Customer service answers the phone (even though, in my opinion, they don't help)
- Deliver on promises
- Call customers back
- Give refunds when no service was provided
I was hopeful about the service. I have a virtual assistant outside the country, and he always had issues sending texts to our clients. The idea was to have my assistant log in to Podium to send those texts. We really tried to work the service into our follow-up contacts with our clients. After many months (maybe a year), we tried to cancel the service because we did not feel we were getting the value for the $500-ish monthly charge. We were then given the option to go down to a lower-tier service for about half that amount. (Side note: We should have been on THAT program from the beginning.) So we gave that a try for a while. In the end, we decided that we were not even getting the value out of THAT lower-tier service. We tried to cancel, but in my experience, we were told this was an ANNUAL service, and we had to keep paying for a full year (for a service we wanted to cancel). It feels like I tried to cancel my cell phone but was told, "You can cancel your phone... but you have to pay full price for the next 12 months."
- In my experience, Send you bill for 11 months after you try to cancel.
- In my experience, Charges you annually for a service you use months
- In my experience, They are great at billing you for the wrong amount
- They should stand behind their product. I feel if someone cancels, they should be able to cancel.
- In my opinion, the accounting department never seems to have their stuff together
- In my experience, it is hard to get a human on the phone, unless they are signing you up.
September 08, 2022
Product Malfunctions
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Our company acquired this service as its parter with our dealer program. We had the miss-fortune to encounter massive issues within the platform and anxiety cripples when you know you have a contract for a year. This review is not intended to harm the company but to help them understand from the customer's stand point how they are lacking, and also to offer future customer's of podium understand what they are in for. First of all Installation was a nightmare, it took them a full month to properly onboard, I was asking for help via email and support was copying and pasting previous emails, or they were setting me up in a call with sales team to ask me to upgrade my plan, Huh?...
The account manager we were supposed to get never reached out until we started asking to cancel the service. After this they allocated a new person which was super helpful creating cases to all the issues we were finding a long the way.
The account manager we were supposed to get never reached out until we started asking to cancel the service. After this they allocated a new person which was super helpful creating cases to all the issues we were finding a long the way.
- Campaigns tab has a massive issue when downloading the results of each TXT campaign the columns do not migrate to what you see on the portal.
- Automated inbox rules are fully useless, first they can't be customized and second of all they do not drive incoming traffic correctly to each bucket.
- Inbox is impossible to organize all of your customer will be dumbed in one bucket.
- Phone number can't be linked to current company phone some clients mentioned they see it as a Spam Contact form lead connections glitch massively.
- Our website its on Wordpress and we had to constantly check if the leads were coming in. As of today we don't know how many customers we lost. Although our volume wasn't huge we did get a customer emailing saying he submitted the form and no one contacted him. Critical issue.
- The use case for the reviews tab its pointless as anyone can send the link for their GMB review tab. Podium should consider customizable micro-sites to make it branded and avoid bad reviews.
- Once a customer's information its uploaded into the system it CAN'T be modified nor deleted. We don't know how many of our customers went through this mix up hence why we were very careful with campaigns. We notices two clients having mixed up information. So when Automating a text it was another's client name but their phone and name were correct. Critical issue to call a client a different name just because of an error of automation.
- Templates where very useful but had to use as we manually had to review that the issue mentioned above was not interfering with the data of the customer and their name
- Txt camapigns
- Automated Txt
- Platform performande and Editability
- Troubleshooting and Customer service
- Feedback reciprocity and funding on improvement of platform
September 06, 2022
Probably best suited for a very large company.
Score 4 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Podium for text messages from customers who go to our website, review links to Facebook and Google and intra-office-to-field-technicians communication. This solved our problem of not getting enough reviews on Google that we needed. We don't advertise at all, so we needed our Google numbers up. We also use it to text our customers who want text messages only. For us in the office, it creates a lot more work than we think it's worth, it's very hard to keep up with incoming text messages when we also have so many phone calls, tons of emails and only 6 people to answer phones.
- Canned text
- linked to Google reviews
- ability to attach documents to text messages
- There should be a way to block spam.
- There should be a way to delete messages.
September 03, 2022
Happy but Wanting
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Podium to contact customers about various aspects of their project including initial deposit collection, scheduling their installation, final payment if not collected at completion, and go back/warranty work. We also use it for chat functions on our website and managing FB messages.
- The payment functions are easy to use and customers like it.
- The integration with Facebook makes it easy to convert messages to leads.
- Our entire team finds it easy to use.
- The mobile app from an admin standpoint is not as informative as the browser version.
- The inboxes and where things end up are often confusing, it is often hard to find conversations.
- If Podium had document signature options and surveying functions it would be a one-stop shop.
September 02, 2022
MAKING THE MOST OF PODIUM
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Podium to contact customers regarding payments, reviews and general communication needs. We wanted to up our review score on google. I also found it to be great to have the option for customers to pay on the secure link through their phone. I enjoy the feature of being able to connect with the customer through text/
- send payments request to customers
- letting me know the payment has been made
- having the funds deposited into our account timely
- sending text messages right away
- the customer service people are not good at answering the questions you have. they are just looking up the answers on a computer. i don't feel that they are actually using the product. i called in with what i thought would be an easy answer from someone that uses it and i finally figured it out on my own weeks later.
- i wish the credit card processing fee was just a little cheaper. i get a better rate when the customer is in the office paying.
- i would like to see it automatically send review invitations without me having to input everyone for the day.
September 02, 2022
Simple View
To answer customer enquiry. Set appoint when appropriate.
- Another source for the public to reach us directly
- Allows us to communicate directly with the customer who cannot come in
- Provides us with follow up contact information
- Filter out spam
September 02, 2022
Did you Podium today?
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Podium as a chat widget on our firm website to give prospective clients immediate access to our attorneys and to provide quick answers to questions. We also harvest client reviews through the App and have gathered over 100 reviews.
- Easy interface
- Customizable templates
- Easy to request firm reviews
- Quick and easy processing of payments
- Maybe enable a video message
- Allow for workflow integration, intake docs, onboarding, etc.
August 30, 2022
Step up to Podium for one of the best means of communicating to your clients and staff
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I manage incoming texts for our company; from making certain consultants see and follow up on messages assigned to them to booking new appointments, advising clients of the status of their item, reaching out to new clients to secure bookings, and answering clients' questions/needs assessing in order to try to book a new appointment or sell the item directly online. Problems Podium addresses? Hmm, I can't think of any. The scope of my use varies... I was the only one of two of our 40+ staff NOT laid off during the covid shutdown. Messages I read/respond to/assign to staff can be as many as 30-40 per day, many needing multiple responses as the client continues questioning.
- Maintains conversations indefinitely, so we are able to go back to confirm details from conversations.
- Provides the ability for our company to have a 'team' messaging platform where we can communicate with one another via single person to a single person, groups where we can add/subtract members of the group... this is invaluable to our organization.
- Until today(!), we could 'share' or forward a message to one another; oddly, that feature disappeared just today, so I'm hoping it's a glitch!
- I would LOVE the ability to search messages by keyword. Often, I remember a conversation and wish to copy/paste from it, but only remember a keyword, not the name of the client.
- I HATE the way the conversation is automatically assigned to the last person who messaged a client after the message has been closed and then reopened. Just because one of our interns delivered a repair and sent the google review link does NOT make him/her that client's consultant.
- Currently, Podium opens a huge sidebar on the right with details about the conversation, client's data, etc., and this is automatic. If I WANT that info, I'll click on the bubble; in the meantime, leave the chat window wide.
August 30, 2022
We've somewhat fallen out of love with Podium
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We originally started using Podium to help us generate more online reviews and track which of our team members are sending Podium review invitations to our customers so we could pay them for each 5-star review they helped generate. We've also used it as a communication platform between our office and our field technicians and we also started using Podium's credit card processing. We like the ease of using Podium's credit card processing but it is causing us not to be able to track which of our team members are sending Podium review invitations. We no longer see who sent the invitation when we also send a payment request. This is not acceptable and this issue can't be fixed soon we will probably move to a different platform.
- Credit card payment processing.
- Text communication between our field techs, office, and customers.
- It helps generate online reviews but we need to be able to track who sent out the invitations like we used to.
- We need to be able to once again track who sent the Podium review invite when we also send a credit card payment request.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Podium integrates with our POS seamlessly. We are able to deliver custom automated messages to our members for reservation reminders, class reminders, notifications of completed service tickets, notifications of special orders to pick up, membership payment reminders as well as review requests. These custom automated messages save us hours a week and complete necessary communications that would otherwise be forgotten. We appear more professional to our customers while we save on payroll hours. Podium also allows us to cut down on phone calls by inviting our customers to reach out via text instead of time consuming phone calls. We also use the payment function to easily collect payments for special orders and memberships. Since joining Podium 2 years ago our customer reviews have grown exponentially and we currently have a healthy 4.7 star average on Google.
- Automated text reminders
- Automated text payment requests
- Automated text review requests
- Stopping automated texts when the event has been canceled in our POS.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use it to communicate with customers and team members. When we have scheduled customers, we use Podium for text reminders. We use it to get and track new reviews, and we started using the credit card payment system as well. Both through text and card readers.
Before Podium, we were having trouble getting customer reviews. We spent a lot of time on the phone with reminder calls and tracking down payments. Now we have a steady stream of reviews coming in, and business has increased considerably because of them. We hear on a regular basis that new customers are using us because of our reviews. We have eliminated a tremendous amount of time that was being spent making phone calls and trying to track customers and payments down. Simply texting them and collecting payments on the spot is saving approximately 30 hours a week of admin time.
Before Podium, we were having trouble getting customer reviews. We spent a lot of time on the phone with reminder calls and tracking down payments. Now we have a steady stream of reviews coming in, and business has increased considerably because of them. We hear on a regular basis that new customers are using us because of our reviews. We have eliminated a tremendous amount of time that was being spent making phone calls and trying to track customers and payments down. Simply texting them and collecting payments on the spot is saving approximately 30 hours a week of admin time.
- Get Reviews
- Communicate with Customers
- get credit card payments
- have a customer history of all communications. we have found this extremely valuable
- Some way to filter out the spam messages coming in.
- There used to be a report that showed keywords from reviews. Unfortunately, it went away and was not replaced.
June 13, 2022
Communicate how your customers want you to
We wanted to open up our communication channels with our customers to better accommodate their communication preference. We currently use it to solicit for reviews of our business on social media, we compare our rating across online platforms with competitors, we offer the ability to start a text conversation to get questions answered and we can view and respond to incoming inbox messages through Facebook and Google in one place with a larger team.
- Combines social channels and allows communication across multiple in one place
- It offers a much higher open rate of messages than email
- It syncs with our visitors' phone numbers and allows us to contact them immediately after their visit
- Stop harassing your current customers to upgrade their account when they are already a customer.
- Have had issues with website pop-ups after installing the text support bubble widget.
May 19, 2022
Don't take no for an answer
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Our company has decided NOT to use this company, doing a little bit of research, we see that this company is horrible. It does not fulfill its promises and I heard a LOT of negative things about Podium. After declining their services, we get harassing calls several times a month to see if we are ready to sign, plus we get numerous emails, once they finally read my decline emails, they reach out to other members of my team for sign up. That is a VERY SHADY way to do business. STAY AWAY FROM PODIUM
- Harass you
- ignore you when you turn them down
- listen to your clients
- learn to take no for an answer
- bugging the crap out of me will not change my mind
May 16, 2022
Waste of Time and Money
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I was never able to truly use the Podium platform as it was described to me by the salesman. I got the setup on my website but Podium never did the follow-through so I could see when someone contacted me. The only way I got a notification was with an email, NO TEXT like I was told it would be. It took about 3 weeks for them to do any type of " onboarding" but it was never completed. Their support team doesn't return calls in a timely manner. I actually got a return call on a Sunday afternoon, rather than during my business hours when I would be near the computer.
- Don't know of anything
- it was a complete waste of my money in my experience.
- Truthfulness from the sales staff.
- promp responds from support staff.
- willingness to work with customers when Podium falls so very short of what is promised.
- Getting the setup done in a timely manner. If they can't onboard, don't charge until the setup is complete.
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We were solicited to use this platform by one of our industry suppliers. It has not lived up to the hype given by the salespeople in any way. I've spent 3 weeks trying to get the platform to fully work and have run into problems every single day. Customer service is terrible mainly because the webchat reps are outside of the USA. They speak and write poor English and only read off generic answers that don't help solve problems at all. I was assigned an Account Executive from Day One, but have never heard from them. I've chatted via text messaging with someone named Jose who has tried to assist, but he must be in another country as well because it takes him 2-3 days to respond. I've chatted with another rep in UT named Miles Mallory via email and a Zoom introductory call (which Jose scheduled), but Miles never listens to my actual needs. Two days ago, we finally got to the point with the platform where we could request payments from customers, but after 2 more business days, the bank transfer payments have still not been received in our business bank account. I guess thousands of dollars have just vanished into thin air and no one at Podium seems to give a damn. Miles Mallory 'supposedly" escalated this payment issue earlier today, but 12 hours later we're still have not received any word on where our customers' money is. I've worked for software companies in the past and it sure seems like I'm in BETA testing of their product. As a reputable business, Podium has some serious issues. I'd strongly suggest looking elsewhere.
- Nothing
- Nothing
- Nothing
- Set Up & Training
- Customer Service
- The Ability to Properly Handle Bank Transfers in a Timely Manner
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I'm 2 weeks into the first month and it's still not set up. The setup call was focused on connecting to google my business, which was not our priority. They send us emails, and we respond, but no one responds to actually help. I wouldn't mind the delay in setting up, except they charge you from the day you sign the contract, so we're halfway in the first month and nothing to show for the $449.00 we paid. From the little bit, I was able to set up on my own, it does not work as the salesperson described. I was sold on this service as a live chat/communication platform that would bring text, email, and live chat all into one box. It does not work this way. It is not a live chat. Customers open the chat on the site and then it moves to text on their phone. I have yet to figure out how emails will come in and no one has told us how to get our text rights released for our phone number, so we can't even use what we have set up. Incredibly disappointed at spending 449.00 for something that has been no benefit to us so far and with the lack of support, not looking like we'll get anything out of it, so we've already requested it to cancel.
- asking for reviews
- support
- clear sales pitch
February 22, 2022
Way to much for services and no ROI
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Website is nice and sales people are sharp. Decided to give them a try for 30 days to see if their platform could perform. Didn't do what they said it would do for me so I canceled. Was billed for 2 more consecutive months with no services rendered. Contacted support, after searching for how to contact them. Support said they would refund the charges. Weeks later I messaged them through their chat and all they said was my case and account was closed. I asked about the refund with no response. Now I am disputing through my credit card company. Customer service makes or breaks a company. I believe, with what I have seen so far this platform will not last long.
- Website is sharp
- Customer service is horrible from my experience.
- Cancellations terms are sketchy I feel.
- Lack of contact information on website.
November 10, 2021
Podium Rocks Communication
We use Podium, integrated with Service Titan as well as on its own to contact customers as well as to request reviews. It is one of my favorite contact methods, so I personally use it all day every day
- Immediate contact
- Request Reviews
- Allows customers to choose how they contact, either by cell phone, or through Google very easy for customers
- I get a lot of weird phone calls through podium maybe make it so calls cannot go through? Never ever answered a call thru podium. Always weird numbers. likely spam
- Often times people CANNOT use the review link. This is an ongoing issue that we cannot resolve.
- Sometimes folks can write in but we cannot respond nor see how they wrote in
November 06, 2021
Deceptive sales from [...] account Executive
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Podium has a really sharp looking web chat plug-in. The Google review tool is nice, but unless you are handling hundreds of reviews per month, the pricing is very steep.
- Sharp looking web chat
- Poor pricing model
- Non-existent customer support
- Misleading sales
- No phone number
- No-call no-show on appointments
July 22, 2021
Podium is an important tool for every business
At Achieve Today, we use Podium as a tool to help our customers write a review of their experience with their education easily. Our students love our solution and education, but sometimes sharing that experience with others can be daunting. Podium makes it easy.
- Makes reviews easy
- Manage reviews and respond
- Track reviews across multiple sources easily
- I really would love the ability to show all review sites for the customer to choose from as the first option, rather than taking them through the flow. Podium allows you to push customers to specific sites, which is valuable. But I would also like the option to switch to display all sites so the customer can choose.
September 30, 2020
Before buying, look at the negative reviews!
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We needed two features that Podium offered: 1) To have a live chat on our website to engage with clients, and 2) to assist our employees in requesting and securing reviews from actual customers and users of our products. It was being used by the Service and Sales department, which encompasses more than half of our employees.
August 07, 2020
Great reputation managment
We use Podium for reputation management online. We send out review invitations through our POS at the time of sale. Customers leave reviews on Google, Facebook, or other sites that they choose. This app has helped us advertise that we are the highest rated furniture store in our area. We also use them to communicate with our customers in a live chat via our website.
- Reviews
- Customer communication
- Reputation management
- Goggle visibility
- Price